


Overlapping Negatives

by amuk



Series: Clearing Skies [4]
Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Beginnings, Gen, Introspection, Loss, Lost Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-24
Updated: 2013-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-26 17:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/652742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the span of a gasp, she is the closest she has been to Zack in years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overlapping Negatives

**Author's Note:**

> Setting: When Cloud falls through the roof of the church.
> 
> I’m an avid Zerith fan. Therefore, this had to be put in.

It crashes through her roof, a small bullet in her heart, and she is surprised when she hears a small groan.

 

It can’t be. It’s so alike but it just can’t be.

 

Approaching the figure, Aerith nearly gasps when she sees the man lying sprawled on her flowers.

 

(It can be.)

 

Maybe, she doesn’t dare look past the uniform, it is him. She stares at the clothes she used to know so well, at the sword that she has almost memorized the shape of, and still doesn’t look at the face. For the moment, she still has a flare of hope.

 

Maybe Zack has finally returned to her. Maybe.

 

(She can almost see his teasing grin, his bright eyes, his gentle hands. She can almost see it and aches with remembrance and loss.)

 

Her eyes drift up, a sea of gold where black should be, and it all crashes. The spikes are too fluffy, the body too lean, and he seems shorter anyways.

 

Collapsing. Aerith almost deflates.

 

It isn’t him. It will _never_ be him.

 

Still, the man did fall through her ceiling like Zack did, almost t he exact same spot. He has the uniform, has the sword, and it is too similar for it to all be a coincidence.

 

Aerith believes in signs (in miracles, in reincarnations, in _soulmates_.) She takes what she can get. This could be the message she has been waiting for these last four years, the answer to her letters.

 

The boy stirs at her voice, his eyes just as bright as Zack’s, and her breath hitches at the sight.

 

When he asks her for a price later, she thinks of Zack and of new beginnings. There used to be an angel in this church, but it was never her. The memories of him helped her last until now, but it won’t last forever.

 

“What can you pay me with?”

 

He’d like this, she chuckles to herself. He’d like this very much and probably would tease her for doing this.

 

She asks anyways. “How about one date?”


End file.
